AG asks NC's top court to decide on Peterson trial

North Carolina's attorney general has asked the state's Supreme Court to decide whether a novelist should get a new trial in his wife's death.

Michael Peterson was convicted in 2003 of first-degree murder in the death of Kathleen Peterson, who was found at the bottom of a staircase in the couple's Durham home in 2001.

He served 9 years in prison, but was granted a new trial and released after the work of Duane Deaver, a State Bureau of Investigation agent who provided key blood analysis testimony, was discredited and he was fired.

Friday's request for a review by the state's highest comes after appeals judges ruled last month that Peterson should get a new trial, upholding a 2011 decision by a lower court. Peterson has remained free while the state wrangles with his defense attorneys over whether to try him again.